Monthly Archives: October 2015

Hi there, so like I told you last time, I’m going to join in this new mystery kal and this is the first time ever I do a KAL and so the first time ever I do a mystery one as well 🙂

This is The Doodle MKAL by Stephen West and it begins on Nov 6th. I saw the pattern page on Ravelry and looked at the pictures of the proposed yarn combinations for this shawl and I fell in love with all the yarn and the idea of knitting a shawl in 3 colors. So I decided to join in.

I haven’t made a project page on Ravelry yet but I intend to do so one of these days. I’m not one for KALs and I don’t know if I will be very present in the Ravelry thread dedicated to this KAL but I wanted to join in just for the fun.

So he recommends using Hedgehog Fibres yarn. I could of course have gone through my stash to find nice substitution yarn or even just hand dyed some yarn myself but…. after seeing all the pictures of these gorgeous Hedgehog Fibres yarns that was just asking too much of the knitter in me.

So off I went and ended up in the online shop of A Yarn Story in England. This is the first time ever I buy yarn from Hedgehog Fibres and I must admit that I could have bought at least 10 skeins! I just totally love their speckled yarns! They are all totally gorgeous. But seeing as I do not have a limitless cash supply for yarn I had to ONLY buy 3 skeins. i went with a blueish theme. And here are my yarns:

Don’t you just love the speckled one in the middle?

The colors are (from left to right): Ink, Lupi, Wish

Are you going to join in this KAL? If so, have you chosen your yarns? Would you like to share a picture of your yarns with me by posting a picture in a comment below? I’d love to see what others have chosen yarnwise for this KAL.

So next weekend i’m going to wind my yarns into cakes and choose a project bag, find the appropriate needles and necessary accessories and I’ll be all set when the first clue comes out on Nov 6th.

That’s all for today. Thank you for stopping by and until next time, take care and enjoy your crafting:)

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Hi there and happy Monday:) I’m not sure if you are a Monday kind of person, I know I’m not a particular fan of Mondays but… let’s try to stay on the positive side:) So Yesterday the time changed here in France and we are officially in Winter! This means that my work hours have also changed so I begin earlier in the day and finish earlier in the evening and even if I have less time in the morning i’m super happy about finishing earlier in the evening. Especially when I’m on the evening shift! So yeah to that 🙂

Now today was as happy mail day for me! I recently discovered this new podcast on Youtube called Fawn Knits and she has an Etsy shop called TheFawnandthefox where she sells project bags. She was showing some of her bags on one of the podcast episodes and so I went over to the shop and although I have recently purchased way more project bags than can be called reasonable, I fell for her bags and bought…..3.

Aren’t they nice?

I think this one is my favorite. It was made to order and it is a sturdy, large bag. The tissue is heavier than in the small bag and the bag is large enough for a big shawl and I think even a fingering weight sweater project. I bought it as I thought it was a little Halloweeny without being too Halloween for me to not use it all year round. And I’m very happy with my purchase.

This is the small bag and I think she calls this one ghosts – its like dresses floating around the woods. Kind of spooky but oh so cute. This will be perfect for sock projects, mittens and hats.

The day I went online she had a special offer so I could get a notions pouch for free with my order and I chose this one which is a happy yellow color. It is big enough to accommodate all the essentials you need to have on hand.

So yeah! Super happy with my new project bags. So now I just have to cast on for some new projects to fill them up:)

And speaking of projects. At the moment I’m still in my “finishing stuff” mode which is a nice change from being in “startitis” mode. So, since last time I have finished a few items and here are the pictures to prove that.

First off my Featherweight cardigan. I knit this using my SPARKLE lace yarn and it took less than 1 skein for a size small. It does not look like much unblocked, also it looks smaller than I had expected but I think I really need to block it before passing judgement. If it actually is too small for the intended recipient, that will not be a problem I already know of someone else that could use it, just in case. So the yarn is gorgeous, super soft and the color is a semi solid silver with very slight traces of blues and purples, impossible to show in a picture. So very nice.

And I think I told you last time that I’m doing hats and mittens as gifts this Christmas. Here are the first too. The one on the left I knit from my hand spun yarn.

And currently I’m working on a pair of mittens and I will be making a hat using the same yarn. This is for a young niece and the yarn is handspun by myself. It is a 3 ply with 3 different pastel colours (blue, pink and yellow). It’s super cute and soft.

I’ve also picked up my Snowflake sweater by Tin Can Knits which I had almost finished and then left in its bag for a shameful amount of time. So now one sleeve is done and I’m half way through the second sleeve so not much left there. I hope I’ll be able to show you a picture of the finished sweater in a few days!

Also my two socks in progress, I really need to finish my two CC Almon socks so I can cast on some more! I dyed up a Christmas yarn and want to knit a pair of vanilla socks with that to show you and I also fell for 2 Christmas dyed yarns by an indie dyer on Etsy the other day…. Once I get the yarn I’ll be showing you here.

Well that’s all for today. I’ll be back soon telling you about an exciting Mkal I’m going to participate in and maybe you are too:)

I got home to find a squishy package addressed to me. I had a momentary pang of guilt–I’m on a yarn diet! Did I convince myself to buy something and then conveniently forget? I was sure I hadn’t, but that package said “yarn” to me. Well, it was! The yarn knittinginfrance sent me arrived already!

One of the resident stripeys helped me investigate. Not only did she send me a full skein of squishy, hand dyed, sparkly yarn, she sent me a lovely note and a magnet, key chain and some seriously cute stitch markers!

Can you see the sparkles??? This is going to make some seriously awesome socks. These are going to be great!

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Hi there, how are you today? I’m happy today is Tuesday, I really don’t like Mondays because they mean I have to go back to work (non knitting related job) and that I have a whole week of that in front of me. Tuesday I’m one down and 4 to go, so that’s better:) I so envie people who work in something they thoroughly enjoy, people who actually enjoy waking up and going to work. Maybe that is why i’m so stubborn about my little business adventure even though it does not work financially it just brings me a little escape and so much fun and personal enjoyment. I’d love to feel the same way about my full time job… But enough complaining! That is not why you came to my blog! So on to knitting.

Like the title says, I have a few works in progress to share with you and one finished object. The finished object is a pair of socks. Last week I finished a total of 4 pairs of socks and I think I shared all but one so here is that picture.

These are knit using one of my hand dyed speckled yarns. I called this yarn Crazy Sock because the colours and pattern look a little wild to me. So super simple socks because I feel that with a yarn like this it is all about the yarn and so the pattern has to be simple.

And the current works in progress, I have one hat, one cardigan and then two pairs of socks both patterns by my friend and fab sock designer CC Almon.

My first pair is one that I begun a while back I’m ashamed to say. I finished the first sock quite quickly and then I went on to a gazillion other projects and kind of left this one behind but now I’m determined to finish it ASAP. The pattern in question is her Outlander sock pattern called The Lady of Lallybroch and it is available on Ravelry. I’m knitting this using Cascade Heritage Sock that I found in my stash. I absolutely wanted to knit those in a solid yarn so that the wonderful cable would shine.

Aren’t those beautiful? I’m not far on the second sock but I’m getting there 🙂

And the second sock pattern is of course the Strawberries and Cream Socks also available on Ravelry. I’m especially in love with this pattern because CC designed it using my yarn:) and this is the first time a designer takes my yarn and designs something!!! So happy and proud!! And of course I dyed a yarn to match which I call Strawberry Frappuccino and it is available both in the SPARKLE and non sparkly versions in my Etsy shop.

So one done and I’m just beginning the second.

This is a close up of the main pattern of the sock.

To help me finish both socks quickly I’ve decided to follow someones idea (a video podcaster I recently discovered, her podcast is called Fawn Knits and you can find her on YouTube). And she uses “a buddy system” so she has two socks going and when she has worked on sock nr 1 for X rounds, she goes to sock nr 2 and works the same amount of rounds and this way she progresses consistently on both pairs. So as one sock has a pattern repeat of 8 rounds and the other of 16 rounds, I work 2 repeats on one and 1 repeat on the other and I’m hoping I can do that almost every day and that way I’ll finish in no time. It’s not that I’m not interested in them but rather that I have soon many things I want to finish and others to cast on that I’m having problems staying focused.

And now on to the Featherweight cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I heard about this one watching some of my favorite podcasts, Ahomespunhouse and Voolenvine. So I decided I too must make one and I decided to do the lace weight version first. The pattern gives you the choice of knitting either with lace weight yarn or fingering. I also decided that I’d knit two of these and so the first one will be a gift for my sister and I dyed a wonderful sparkly lace yarn for her. It’s a blend of merino, silk and stolen. Out of this world soft and the silvery colour I dyed it works so beautifully with the silver stellina in it.

I’m almost there! One sleeve and the front and back collar left. It went quite quickly because this is mostly stockinette stitch. And to avoid purling I often knit backwards. That was a nice change. I’m a little worried about the size. I chose the second size which I figure is Small and this is a short cardigan with 3/4 sleeves but easily modifiable to a longer cardi and longer sleeves if one wishes. So I made it a little longer and the sleeve as well. It still looks quite small but the yarn feels stretchy and it is supposed to be close to the body so I think I’m worrying for nothing. Also the advantage of doing this in lace weight, is that lace yarns come with huge yardage so I think I’ll only need one skein. So even if the yarn is pricier than regular fingering weight, it ends up being economical because you only need 1-2 skeins depending on the size you knit. If you’d like to take a look at the type of yarn I used here, you can see them in my shop by clicking here

And the last project I’m working on is a hat that I’m knitting using handspan yarn and this is a hat I’m going to give to my father for Christmas. The yarn is quite dark in color, a mix of dark brown, black and bronze so it’s not easy to picture the pattern.

I’m using a pattern called The Boyfriend set I’m doing the hat but not the scarf. And I think I’ll have enough yarn to make a pair of mittens as well. This is a thick DK/worsted yarn that I spun a while ago when I was a beginner spinner and so it is thick and thin but it doesn’t show in the hat and oh boy is it warm! I’m sure he’ll love this and enjoy his walks this winter with a super warm hand knit hat on his head!

And like I said last time, I’m going to do a lot of knitting (or try to at least) for Christmas this year and I’m planning on doing sets of hats and mittens so I really need to finish my WIPs so I can get cracking on the Christmas gifts.

Well, that’s all for today. Thank you for stopping by and spending a little while with me. I wish you a great week and lots of knitting, crocheting and spinning. I’ll talk to you soon 🙂

Hi, there today is Saturday and I hope you have the day off. I usually don’t work on weekends so my Saturdays are usually spent shopping for the week and doing house chores. I have finally finished all that boring stuff and finally got to sit down and RELAX! Ouff, that is good! So hopefully you are relaxing too.

Now, I have sent out the prizes to the two winners of my giveaway and I hope they will like my yarn. I have also sent the other participants in the giveaway their special discount code either via Revelry or by email so you should all have yours.

This week I got to think about Christmas presents and as this holiday season money might be tight, I decided I’d do some knitted gifts. I only knit for a small group of family and close friends that I know will enjoy and appreciate my hand knits. And so I’m thinking of doing hats and mittens for them.

I have cast on for the hat I’m going to give my father. I’m using a handspun yarn that I spun a while ago, in fact not long after I had begun spinning so it is not even but somewhat thick and thin but the color is masculin so I’m sure he’ll like that. Its a mix of black, brown and dark green and the yarn is super warm. I might even have enough to knit the mittens with the same yarn. It’s mostly a DK thickness so I’m knitting on size 4mm needles. The pattern I’m using is called the Boyfriend Set by Stephanie Boomsma. It is a free pattern on Revelry for a hat and a scarf but I think I’m not going to do the scarf.

I need to find nice patterns for feminine hats and mittens and I’m going to use some of my hand spun yarns for those as well. What about you? Are you planning on knitting a few gifts for Christmas? Is this something you do every Christmas or ?

It’s not always easy to knit for others, I feel mostly it is a size issue as they can’t try the item on while I’m working and so I’m always nervous about the fit. For example I’m knitting the Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig and I’m going to give that to my sister either for her Christmas or for her birthday in the new year. I’m almost done with the body (I’m on the ribbing) and I hope I’ve chosen the right size and that even though I made it longer than the pattern said, it will be ok. The pattern calls for a sort card but I want it to be longer but I was’t sure how much longer so I just added a few inches and hopefully that will be fine:)

Another thing I’ve been wondering about is doing a Christmas swap/giftalong. You know where a number of us would participate and each one would be assigned one giftee and so we would all buy one gift and send to someone and in return we would each receive one super fun knitting related Christmas gift. What do you think? Would you be interested in joining? I could organise and assign each one with one giftee and I could maybe prepare a little questionnaire where we explain what type of knitting we mostly do, what type of yarns we like and our favorite colors etc to help us choose the perfect gift for each other. I’d love to do this so if you are interested, please leave a comment below. I’d work on the idea some more if there is any interest and share on social media some more and then maybe beginning of November we would assign giftees and do the questionnaires and then send out the gifts beginning of December so they arrive before Christmas. Let me know what you think:)

Well that’s all for today. I’m feeling kind of tired so I’m going to do some knitting and watch something fun on my computer. Take care and have a wonderful weekend.

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Hi there, at last I’m able to draw the winners and announce the lucky winners!

So first off, thank you to all for participating in the giveaway and for leaving a comment. I will contact the two lucky winners as of this evening and for the rest of you, I will be sending you your discount code via Ravelry tomorrow, October 15th.

So, the two lucky winners win the latest sock pattern by CC Almon called Strawberries and Cream which was designed using my yarn and 1 skein of yarn dyed specially for that pattern – a colorway I call Strawberry Frappuccino.

This is a picture from the pattern page on Ravelry

This is a picture of my sock in progress in the Strawberry Frappuccino Sparkle yarn

The winners can choose to either have the sparkly version or non sparkly of the yarn. Both versions can be found in my Etsy shop here

Now, I guess it is time to reveal the lucky winners. As always I chose the winners using a random number generator that picked 2 winners between the numbers 3-11 ( the first 2 comments didn’t count as one was from CC and the other from me).

And so the lucky winners of the pattern and yarn are:

NicoleS who left a comment saying: I’d love to win because this yarn would be perfect to knit a pair of socks for a specific friend.

And

Alexand knit who left a comment saying: I would love to win because a) who doesn’t need more yarn, especially as beautiful as that? and b) I’ve just started making socks!

So congratulations girls! I’ll be sending you the pattern via Ravelry this evening and I’ll be in touch for your postal address and choice of yarn base! Wow! That was fun!

Now don’t be sad if you did not win this time around, there will be other giveaways plus you will be getting a special discount code of 10% if you want to buy something from my Etsy shop.

That’s all for tonight! Enjoy your evening and enjoy your crafting until next time 🙂

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It has to be! Guess what? Today I finished 3 yes 3 pairs of socks! I’m so happy!!!!! I feel so very efficient and it is also a relief to get those off my needles and deminish my pile of WIPs!

And in spite of actually finishing 3 pairs today, I still have 3 pairs in progress! I think I most be a total sucker for knitting socks 🙂

So drum rolls please (I think they are in order today)……

Here come the pictures

These are knit two at a time using the Kate Atherley method where one sock is inside the other. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Rainbow.

I really love how the yarn tuned out. This is a pattern I just made up as I went. These were supposed to be my travel socks but I was so excited about the yarn that I cast on before travelling and ended up knitting on them so they stayed home. I showed you two skeins of yarns I think, that I dyed as a test and I sold one and kept the other and I think I’m going to try to repeat this colorway and create more like this because I really love how the yarn knits up.

This is the pair I’m happiest about finishing because these have been on my needles for way too long. I had actually finished one sock and the other I was one pattern repeat + toe away from finishing. So today I finally did it! And I’m so happy! The yarn is hand dyed by myself and this is a 100% BFL I think and I love how the colors are together and I’m just so happy I managed to finish a pair with this much stranded colorwork. The pattern is called The Philosopher’s walk socks and is free on Ravelry.

Wow that feels so good! To actually finish 3 items and see the pile of WIPs diminish! I need to continue on my path to finishing WIPs so I can cast on some more!!!

Like I said before, I still have 3 pairs on the go and the one I’m most excited about finishing is the Strawberries and Cream socks by CC Almon. She designed the pattern using my yarn and I dyed up a special color way for this pattern that I call Strawberry Frappuccino. CC’s pattern is available for purchase on Ravelry and you can find it in her patterns shop – she is CC Almon or JavaPurl.

Here si where I’m at now and this is my first sock

So I’m done with the heel and beginning on the leg. If you are interested in knitting these and maybe even use my yarn to do so, I would encourage you to participate in my giveaway if you haven’t done so yet. You can find all the info about that here but hurry as I will draw 2 random winners tomorrow October 14th.

That”s all for today. I hope you are doing fine and enjoying your new week. And I look forward to being back tomorrow to announce the winners of the Giveaway (and don’t forget that even if you do not win, you will still get a discount code to use in my shop).

Hi there, today is Saturday and so I hope you are enjoying your weekend and doing some knitting, maybe even in front of the telly or your computer 🙂 I’m about to do just that!

I’ve spent the morning dyeing up some yarns and I have some left still to dye. But I have also been spending a lot of time on a new project, one that I was going to do but then decided against. And then I actually did take the plunge this week and as of a few minutes ago this project is LIVE and public!

So what exactly am I talking about: A NEW ONLINE SHOP! Yes that is right, I finally did open up my own private ecommerce website….again! So, this time it is quite different from the first time. So this time around I chose an option that allows me to integrate my Etsy shop to the website and so I can have both my Etsy shop and my very own independent shop in the same place. This I hope will make for an easy transition should I go all the way and concentrate only on my own shop. This new website is also called Knitting in France but in stead of .com its .net so: www.knittinginfrance.net

So this new website has its own shop which at the time is super small as I only have 1 (yes!!) yarn listed there (but I do have 5 skeins of it). Everything I’m dying today will go to this shop. And then you have the Etsy shop and you have a page with my social media sharing – Instagram and Pinterest. I didn’t add Facebook and Twitter as I’m usually sharing the same images all over and that meant the site would show the same picture 4 times!

And there is also a blog feature and I’m going to use that for information related to shop updates and I’m also thinking of maybe doing a video podcast which in that case would be hosted there. I’m going to continue blogging here at knittinginfrance.com as I like this blog and have built up a nice archive of posts and a growing number of subscribers so fear not – I’ll still be here.

I’d love it if you took a look at my new website and then left me a comment here to tell me what you think. Any positive/constructive feedback is appreciated.

But on the video thing, there are a lot of video podcasts out there on the subject of knitting, yarn dyeing and spinning so I’m not sure if there is a place for one more. I’m not quite sure either what I would do with it exactly but the idea is spinning in my head. What do you think? Do you like watching knitting podcasts? Which are your favorite ones? If I decided to go that way, would you be interested?

Also I’d like to thank all those that have left comments so far on my last post for a giveaway! You still have time to leave a comment and join in the fun if you haven’t done so yet. Just click here and leave a comment telling me why you would like to win.

That’s all for today my friend! Enjoy your weekend and knit as much as you can 🙂

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Hi there, yes you read right, it’s time for a giveaway. I’m celebrating a number of things this week:

the reopening of my shop, the publication of the first ever sock pattern designed specifically for my yarns and the fact that my blog now has over 100 subscribers! Yay!!!

So I’m doing a giveaway where there will be no losers – yes a giveaway where everyone will get something:) So there will be 2 big winners that will each receive a skein of my hand dyed yarn in the Strawberry Frappuccino colorway in the SPARKLES base and the Strawberries and Cream Frappé Sock pattern by JavaPul (I will need your Revelry username to gift you the pattern via Revelry and your full postal address for sending the yarn).

If you are not one of the lucky big winners you will receive a special discount code valid for 10% off a future order in my shop

Doesn’t that sound awesome? I sure hope so.

How can you participate? Well, it’s super easy. Just leave me a comment below and tell me why you would like to win and also include your Revelry user name. You have until the 14th of October to participate and leave a comment and on the 14th I will choose the two big winners using a random number generator. The winners will be announced sometime during the 14th of October and I will then contact the big winners directly to get all the necessary info for the delivery of their price. And before the 17th of October I will send each of the other participants their discount code via a Revelry message (hence my request to include your Revelry user name in your comment). Should you not be a member of Revelry (you should join NOW) you can send me an email once the winners have been announced at knittinginfrance@gmail.com and I’ll send you the discount code by email.

That’s all so leave me a comment and you will win a great price weather you are the big winner or not.

That’s all for today, take care and enjoy your crafting

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Hi there, I’m back in France after a wonderful trip to the USA. I’ll have to write a post about my trip and share some pictures of the wonderful sights I saw there. But today will be a rather short post as I’m totally jet lagged and super tired from the long hours of travel back home and the 9 hours of time difference.

First I absolutely wanted to let you know that I have reopened my shop as of yesterday evening. You will discover a lot of new hand dyed yarns and 2 clubs. For the first time I’m doing one Goody Bag club for knitters and one Fibre club for spinners. To begin with each club will be a 3 month subscription and if they go well I’m going to launch a new edition before the end of this year for a year long club where you will receive a package every two months. So stay tuned:) Now to check out the shop and my new yarns, just click here

Second, I’m super excited to announce the publishing of the first ever sock pattern designed specifically for my hand dyed yarns! The pattern is called Strawberries and Cream Frappé Socks and is by CC Almon or JavaPurl on Ravelry.

Gorgeous don’t you think? Of course I’m going to cast on ASAP, never mind the gazillion projects I have going already 🙂 And here you can find the yarn I dyed specifically for this pattern, there is a version in the SPARKLES base which is what the designer used in her pattern and you can find that here

This is the SPARKLE Strawberry Frappuccino

And the regular, SOX base yarn is called Speckled Frappuccino and can be found here

This is the SOX base yarn

And to add some more excitement, I’m happy to announce that JavaPurl is celebrating her birthday today October 4th (HAPPY BIRTHDAY CC) and she is offering us all -38% off the regular price of her pattern! So head on over to Revelry and buy the pattern using the coupon code CCSBDAY. The discount is valid until October 11th.

Now it’s time for me to cast on for this very special pattern and I’ll share the pictures later this week:)

So have a wonderful Sunday and a great new week. Until next time, take care